Europe, where several lovers aspired to the hand of some celebrated beauty, their rival pretensions were settled as among certain animals, by combat, and the maxim,

"None but the brave deserve the fair,"

was carried into practical operation. A lover in those days was obliged to contend one by one with all his rivals, and the lady, whatever her predilections, was obliged to give her hand to the conqueror. There is nothing strange in this, however, since, as we have said, the same thing is observed in the lower orders of animals. Love and war are as closely connected in reality, as are the organs which govern them, in the phrenological developments.

As society gained in refinement, the barbarity of perpetual contests declined, and games and tournaments were instituted, in which young men exhibited their skill and dexterity, for the prize of beauty. But even these less bloody contests led often to protracted feuds and deadly animosities; and, in time, marriage, among the rich and powerful, became generally a matter of contract and sale, and Christianity for ages did nothing to soften this hard fate of woman, but to give her a choice between a detested marriage and a convent.

These observations, however, must be considered as applying mostly to the higher classes of society, for in countries where polygamy does not exist, those who suffer the burthens and privations of poverty have been compensated by a much greater freedom of the affections.

In the early ages of Greece, love appears to have been little more than a gross animal appetite, impetuous and unrestrained, either by cultivation of manners or precepts of morality. Men satisfied their propensities by force, or revenged the obstruction of their desires by murder. In later and more enlightened ages, the young of both sexes had few opportunities of declaring their affection for each other. The lover inscribed the name of his mistress on the bark of a tree, in some grove where she resorted, or on the wall of his house. It was a beautiful custom for a lover to deck the door of his mistress' house with garlands of flowers to make libations of wine before it, and

sprinkle the doorway, as was customary at the entrance of the temple of Cupid.

Garlands were of great use among the Greeks in their love affairs. When a man untied his garland it was a confession of love, and a woman made the same confession by composing one. It is but natural to suppose that a people, whose vivid poetical fancies sought correspondencies in every thing, found means in this way of carrying on a courtship, as pleasantly and quite as intelligibly, as by billet doux.

But if a love affair did not prosper in the hands of a Grecian, instead of endeavoring to become more engaging in his manners, he resorted to philters and incantations, in which certain women drove a lucrative trade. Nor were these potions without their effects, for if they did not excite love, they were composed of such powerful narcotics as to deprive those who took them of sense and sometimes of life itself. When love-potions failed, they proceeded to incantations and charms. A favorite one was to mould an image of the beloved object in wax, and then with certain ceremonies to gradually warm and melt it before the fire, and it was imagined that as the fire penetrated the wax, so love would soften and melt the obdurate heart of the object beloved. Experiments of this kind were tried by hapless lovers of both sexes. It was a great object to get possession of some article belonging to the beloved one, and when a man was so fortunate, he placed it in the earth beneath the threshold of her door, as a charm of peculiar efficacy.

It must not be supposed that all these conjurations were on one side, for if a person imagined himself worked upon by any philter, love-potion, or charm, he immediately applied to some old woman to prepare a counter charm, which would free him from his supposed fascination.

It is proper to state, however, that all these methods of courtship, from the beautiful ones of garlands and flowers, to the absurd ones of potions and charms, were generally practised to forward illicit amours. The Greek women, from the heroic ages to the present day, have seldom had the power of refusing such matches as were provided for them by their parents or guardians, so that the greater

part of real courtship, and such true love as existed, was in defiance of the artificial regulations of society.

We shall have occasion to treat very fully of this important branch of our subject in the following pages.

The Romans in a great measure adopted their manners from the Greeks. Various arts of courtship were used among the Romans as among the Greeks, but only in illicit amours, and those had in them very little of a sentimental character. With our ideas of refinement and the romance of love, we are perpetually astonished at the want of such sentiments even among the poets of Greece and Rome. There is nothing in the history of man for which it is more difficult to account.

We have no evidence that there was any thing like courtship as a prelude to marriage. In the Roman authors, we frequently read of a father, brother, or guardian, giving his daughter, sister, or ward in marriage, but never where an intended bridegroom applied to the lady for her consent, although we have the most minute accounts of the manners and habits of the Roman people; and this is the more remarkable, since women, at a late period of the Roman empire, rose to a dignity and freedom scarcely paralleled in modern times.

The elements of our present civilization sprung up in the North; and the true dignity of woman was recognised in the mythology of Odin.

We find, therefore, that the ancient Scandinavian women were chaste, proud and emulous of glory. Their rights, in the affairs of love, were so far respected, that their own consent was to be won, before parent or guardian was consulted. To gain the affections of these haughty and high-toned dames, two things were necessary. The lover must not only be able to captivate his mistress by his personal qualities and assiduous attentions, but he must have performed such feats of arms as to have gained a renown that would make him worthy of her hand.

It is true that these observations apply especially to the higher classes of society-but as in all countries these set the fashion in manners and morals, we should doubtless find that all classes were governed by the same general principles.

Such portions of Scandinavian literature as have been preserved, afford us some fine examples of this union of love and war among the bold nations of the north. One of these is the following

ODE OF KING REGNER LODBROG.

"We fought with swords that day, wherein I saw ten thousand of my foes rolling in the dust, near a promontory of England. A dew of blood distilled from our swords; the arrows which flew in search of the helmets bellowed through the air. The pleasure of that day was equal to that of clasping a fair virgin in my arms.

"We fought with swords. A young man should march early to the conflict of arms-man should attack man or bravely resist him; in this hath always consisted the nobility of the warrior. He who aspires to the love of his mistress ought to be dauntless in the clash of swords.

"We fought with swords in fifty and one battles under my floating banners. From my early youth, I have learned to dye the steel of my lance with blood; but it is time to cease. Odin hath sent his goddesses to conduct me to his palace. I am going to be placed on the highest seat, there to quaff goblets of beer with the gods. The hours of life are rolled away."

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Such was the life, the glory, the love and the religion of King Regner-such was the spirit of the times of which we are speaking a spirit not entirely lost among the descendants of the Norsemen.

We have a beautiful and touching ode of Harold the Valiant, of a later date, in which he enumerates the exploits by which he had hoped to gain the affections of his beloved, each stanza of which ends with a complaint of his want of success. It is worthy to be transcribed as an illustration of the ancient northern life and literature. We prefer a literal translation to any attempt to give the bold spirit of the composition in English verse:

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ODE OF HAROLD THE VALIANT.

My ships have made the tour of Sicily; there were we all magnificent and splendid. My brown vessel, full of mariners, rapidly rowed to the utmost of my wishes.

Wholly taken up with war, I thought my course would never slacken; and yet a Russian maiden scorns me.

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In my youth, I fought with the people of Drontheim; their troops exceeded ours in number. It was a terrible conflict. I left their young king dead on the field; and yet a Russian maiden scorns me.

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One day, we were but sixteen in a vessel, a storm arose and swelled the sea; it filled the loaded ship, but we diligently cleared it out; thence I formed hopes of the happiest success; and yet a Russian maiden scorns me.

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I know how to perform eight exercises: I fight valiantly; I sit firmly on horse-back; I am inured to swimming; I know how to glide along on skates; I dart the lance, and am skilled at the oar; and yet a Russian maiden

scorns me.

Can she deny that young and lovely maiden-that on that day, when posted near a city of the southern land, I joined battle, that then I valiantly handled my arms, and left behind me lasting monuments of my exploits ?—and yet a Russian maiden scorns me.

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I was born in the high country of Norway, where the inhabitants handle their bows so well; but I preferred guiding my ships, the dread of peasants, among the rocks of the ocean, and far from the habitations of men. I have run through all the seas with my vessels; and yet a Russian maiden scorns me."

Such were the exploits and loves of the old Norsemen. At this day we should call them freebooters, buccaneers, robbers, pirates—yet centuries after, the same race is doing the same things, with a little more formality and hypocrisy. Under our old religion of Thor and Woden, or Odin, men believed that courage in war, and the slaughter of their enemies entitled them to the highest seats among the gods; their descendants are fully as brave and furious in war, but they profess to believe in a very different religion-a religion of love and peace! But we stray from our subject.

Besides arts and arms, the Norsemen had their charms and incantations, to acquire the good graces of the fairall these things proving that their women were not slaves in their affections, but that, instead of being given away or sold, they had to be wooed and won.